Page 4 - "At least it seems safe to say that some form of representative government based on the principle of popular sovereignty and some form of market economy fueled by the energies of individual citizens have become the commonly accepted ingredients for national success throughout the world. These legacies are so familiar to us, we are so accustomed to taking their success for granted. . . "
When I (Mr. Little) , was growing up, there was still a competition between two great superpowers in the world - the United States and the Soviet Union - which were two opposites in terms of form of government and who controlled the economy. However, the economy and the government of the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s and they fell apart into a bunch of struggling countries. Pretty much every country in the world now has a government that is kind of like ours and an economy where anyone can produce anything and try to sell it for a profit to whoever wants to buy it. The only exceptions seem to be Cuba, North Korea, and a few others, but generally people assume that they are countries that are going to fail sometime soon, anyway. The big question is what about China?
Page 7 - ". . . the geographic isolation of the North American continent and the bountiful natural resources contained within it provided the fledgling nation with massive advantages and almost limitless potential. . . . If the infant American republic could survive its infancy, if it could manage to endure as a coherent national entity long enough to consolidate its natural advantages, it possessed the potential to become a dominant force in the world."
The first part of this quote sounds just like the claims that Paine and others were using to justify independence. Essentially they were saying that Britain needed us more than we needed them in economic terms. Even George Washington recognized the potential as long as the country survived the first 50 years or so.
Page 15 - "With the American Revolution, as with all revolutions, different factions came together in common cause to overthrow the reigning regime, then discovered in the aftermath of their triumph that they had fundamentally different and politically incompatible notions of what they intended."
What an excellent sentence! The battle for independence was hard enough to win, but then the battle for a national government was very challenging as well. I think that battle is the most interesting.
Page 4 - "At least it seems safe to say that some form of representative government based on the principle of popular sovereignty and some form of market economy fueled by the energies of individual citizens have become the commonly accepted ingredients for national success throughout the world. These legacies are so familiar to us, we are so accustomed to taking their success for granted. . . "
When I (Mr. Little) , was growing up, there was still a competition between two great superpowers in the world - the United States and the Soviet Union - which were two opposites in terms of form of government and who controlled the economy. However, the economy and the government of the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s and they fell apart into a bunch of struggling countries. Pretty much every country in the world now has a government that is kind of like ours and an economy where anyone can produce anything and try to sell it for a profit to whoever wants to buy it. The only exceptions seem to be Cuba, North Korea, and a few others, but generally people assume that they are countries that are going to fail sometime soon, anyway. The big question is what about China?
Page 7 - ". . . the geographic isolation of the North American continent and the bountiful natural resources contained within it provided the fledgling nation with massive advantages and almost limitless potential. . . . If the infant American republic could survive its infancy, if it could manage to endure as a coherent national entity long enough to consolidate its natural advantages, it possessed the potential to become a dominant force in the world."
The first part of this quote sounds just like the claims that Paine and others were using to justify independence. Essentially they were saying that Britain needed us more than we needed them in economic terms. Even George Washington recognized the potential as long as the country survived the first 50 years or so.
Page 15 - "With the American Revolution, as with all revolutions, different factions came together in common cause to overthrow the reigning regime, then discovered in the aftermath of their triumph that they had fundamentally different and politically incompatible notions of what they intended."
What an excellent sentence! The battle for independence was hard enough to win, but then the battle for a national government was very challenging as well. I think that battle is the most interesting.